Tuesday, December 30, 2008

We may have disagreed with Samuel Huntington on many things, but he was right about the cultural tone-deafness of today's western elites. It is the most lasting heritage of Marxism: the belief that only economics are real, and all other human factors will yield to economic realities.

This article clearly touched a raw nerve (as confirmed by the multitude of comments), namely the possibility that Christianity may be something so real that it is able to change people. This is a sensitive spot for post-enlightment Western culture, which is based on the assumption that human reason is naturally capable of building civilization, and cannot accept that human reason itself may be in need of redemption.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Czech president Vaclav Klaus meets the children of 1968. They don't care what he thinks, or how people voted. Being true heirs of Rousseau, they EMBODY the will of the people. The poor guy thought totalitarianism ended in 1989 ("19 years ago").

When you read the word "understanding" (as opposed to learning) six times in the same paragraph and hear that children will be taught "practical skills" for "real-life situations" (as opposed to any real content), you can be sure that an educational system is being actively destroyed by a clique of academic pedagogists.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

If you care to know how bad the situation really is in Pakistan, an excellent source is Syed Saleem Shahzad . To him it seems absolutely obvious that the ONLY reason the Pakistanis may crack down on out-of-control Islamic militants is because of the pressure from Washington. That suggests that this plan is probably wishful thinking.

Victor Davis Hanson again. After you skip the first seven paragraphs on the merits of classical education (nothing wrong there, just a bit cliche), his analysis of what's happening to the university system is quite acute.

Friday, December 05, 2008

Peter Berkowitz reviews the latest book by Bernard-Henry Levy. Apparently BHL regards Nietzsche as the embodiment of the liberal spirit. Since he is a respected philosopher we must hold our judgement, but for anybody else this opinion would suggest excessive intake of cocaine.